CoverStory
vice president of global customer engagement training (GCET) at Pfizer
“The launch of GCET is a defining moment in the evolution of commercial training and is a result of a seamless multi-stakeholder, commercially grounded approach built with and for one of our most essential functions, commercial facing teams.”
“By creating a structured, high-impact and role-relevant training organization, I am confident we will set a new standard for optimal learning experience and impact.”
In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, the role of a life sciences customerfacing colleague (CFC) is more critical and complex than ever. Heightened expectations from customers require more from CFCs, and market forces such as limited accessibility to a variety of customers (healthcare providers, health system administrators, payer decision-makers and more) add to these challenges.
Under the leadership of Katina Owens, vice president of global customer engagement training (GCET) at Pfizer, a visionary team of leaders took on the challenge of reimagining CFC learning, development and overall training experience. The aspiration? Deliver a world-class training organization and learner experience that serves thousands of CFCs across the globe to meet customer needs and deliver on key imperatives critical to role and product success.
Driven by Pfizer’s core values — excellence, courage, equity and joy — the launch of the GCET team was not just another training effort or reorg. The launch of this organization represents a strategic partnership approach that centers around the learner and leverages learning and development to drive commercial customer engagement success now and into the future.
Driving the charge of this evolution was the opportunity to rethink and modernize training development, design and delivery; align with the strategic needs of the commercial divisions; and tie efforts to rigorous outcomes measures. Benchmarking data by TGaS Advisors made it clear in a December 2024 LTEN Focus on Training magazine article:
“As customer-facing roles evolve, training programs are transforming to keep pace. The skill set required now goes far beyond product knowledge, demanding digital fluency, data interpretation and the ability to collaborate seamlessly across functions. In fact, 67% of respondents in our survey pointed to the need for increased investment in learning and development to align with shifting expectations of healthcare providers. For L&D, this means rethinking traditional training and focusing on building teams that can deliver adaptable, data-driven support.”
With this, the team adopted a project-based way of working, with seamless commercial partnership and executive leader sponsorship. The efforts of the team laser focused on areas of opportunity to impact learner experience and the desired future-state aspiration.
In-person learning: Virtual training had become the default due to the COVID-19 pandemic, creating an opportunity to revisit training’s interactive experience design.
Healthcare-related, customer-centered learning: Training of product, disease state and therapeutic areas could be strengthened by further integrating fresh and market-grounded content related to today’s healthcare environment and customer-based needs.
Economies of scale: By working as one team with the business, teams aligned on a central approach to institutionalize consistent training methods, modalities and content standards, creating collective advantage positioning and trust that has catapulted results.
Comprehensive role-specific curricula: Learners were classified and engaged by role to understand unique needs and role demands. This led to enhanced role-based curriculum with innovative content and delivery to boost capabilities and outcomes.
Aligned and relevant learning analytics: Measures for impact of training are being built with the business to ensure a more robust measures plan was in place to support the ability to quantify impact and/or adjust strategies in real time.
The approach of the collective team was guided by key principles that include:
Fostering deep collaboration with business units, customer engagement platforms and subject matter experts.
Adapting quickly to market and organizational shifts while maintaining agility in execution.
Prioritizing forward momentum, launching initiatives with immediate impact rather than waiting for perfection.
These attitudes helped the team to effectively navigate challenges, drive the project forward and take action to enhance the structure and role design within training to deliver on the aspiration.
Needs assessment: Conducted an intense period of listening, learning and researching across Pfizer to evaluate and understand existing training practices across the commercial divisions as well as across the external environment for industry-related best practices.
Future state design: Ensuring commercial CFC learners were kept at the center, GCET leaders captured the most important needs of the business related to commercial CFC training. They then developed an ideal training structure and framework grounded in role-specific curricula, comprehensive coaching constructs, multi-modal delivery and data-driven learning analytics.
Execution and integration: Launched the new GCET organization within the chief marketing office, which enabled seamless integration and partnership across the commercial divisions.
The new structure created unprecedented opportunities for connection, expertise and the chance to meet commercial CFC learners where they are:
New and evolved vertical teams: Specialized areas focused on different commercial CFC training needs to include content building, training delivery, measurement, innovation, learner experience and curriculum design.
New roles created: Structural design that ensured the right subject matter expertise and experience to drive training excellence efficiently and effectively.
GCET training investments: Rapidly onboarded the right talent and expertise to bring the vision of customer engagement training to life.
New organizational structure: Built with new roles and talent in place in record time, setting a new era for talent management and commercial CFC training.
Change is meaningful when it produces results. GCET quickly launched strategic training constructs with immediate and measurable impact including:
Coaching framework: A universal coaching model that offers a standardized language and guidelines for daily coaching interactions among commercial CFC leaders.
Selling skills framework: Learner-centered modules and application-based training was built and/or evolved to support essential selling skill mastery goals.
Partnership with the business: Solid ways of working enabled the training team to develop and deliver application-based workshops for priority brands across multiple commercial divisions.
New role-based curriculum: Phased, multi-modal new hire sales leader, sales rep and key account management curriculum with new and enhanced brand, skill, market and customer content.
Training GCET: High-impact, customized, phased learning curriculum designed to rapidly onboard GCET colleagues. Courses were strategically developed and delivered to support training colleagues’ mastery of topics.
Modality matrix: Strategic blend of in-person, digital and experiential learning — and an easy decision tree to help determine and apply the right modality in the right way.
These initiatives represent just the beginning for GCET. The teams are seeing immediate impact, and the model is built for sustainability. Embracing a learner-centered approach and acting on it with real change not only benefits CFC performance and career development, but also customers and patients worldwide.
The evolution of commercial training is an ongoing journey. GCET remains committed to innovation, agility and excellence, ensuring that training evolves in tandem with market needs.
With trust, courage and a relentless commitment to progress, GCET is not just evolving training, it is shaping the future of commercial excellence.
“The launch of GCET is a defining moment in the evolution of commercial training and is a result of a seamless multi-stakeholder, commercially grounded approach built with and for one of our most essential functions, commercial facing teams,” Owens said. “By creating a structured, high-impact and role-relevant training organization, I am confident we will set a new standard for optimal learning experience and impact.”
At Pfizer, the investment in GCET is not just about training, it is about empowering commercial CFCs with the knowledge, skills and confidence to excel in their roles, drive business growth and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
The future of commercial training is here and built to last.
